PA court ruling on gas drilling discussed

Municipalities have limited control

By TOM KANE

HAWLEY, PA - Municipal officials gathered at the PPL Learning Center on May 4 to learn more about the recent PA Supreme Court decisions on cases between two gas drilling companies and two municipalities.

For two and a half hours, Hawely, PA attorney Tony Waldron discussed land-use policy and gas exploration and attempted to clarify the recent court decisions on a municipality’s ability to control gas drilling within its boundaries.

The two cases, Huntley & Huntley vs Borough of Oakmont and Range Resources and Appalachia vs. Salem Township, drew very different decisions” one giving municipalities power and the other taking it away.

The Oakmont case gave the borough the ability to use zoning to control “where” drilling could take place and the Salem case stated that a township could not control “how” drilling could be carried out.

“A municipality can restrict drilling in a residential district,” Waldron said. “It could designate certain areas as sensitive, could put in regulation on light and noise and could limit access to certain roads, but it would have to have good reasons for doing so. For example, a township could require that truck traffic be restricted at school sites when bussing is in operation.”

Waldron said that some well sites could generate over 500 truck trips.

There was no provision in the Oakmont decision to give townships the ability to have a road repair provision he said, though in many cases gas companies have promised to repair any damage they create.

A municipality could require that a well site have a 911 address for cases of emergency but it could not require the company to give a list to firefighters of the chemicals in its drilling fluids, which is deemed proprietary information.

The court provided no general guidelines that a township should follow in regard to zoning limitations, Waldron said.

Whether the case will set a precedent of law that could apply to other Pennsylvania municipalities was not yet clear.